Infrastructure elements, such as bridges, are important assets and should be maintained in good condition to help ensure service and safety. Civil engineers are responsible for ensuring that bridges and other critical infrastructure elements are in working order, and developing plans to service damaged infrastructure.
State and federal Departments of Transportation (DOTs) require collection of annual data regarding critical infrastructure elements, such as bridges. The collected information includes both a physical description of the structure and an assessment of the structure's condition. While these data reflect the configuration and condition of the infrastructure elements, the data can be difficult to comprehend, even for trained engineers. In particular, the format of the data makes it difficult to decipher both structure configuration and condition of the bridge. Accordingly, there is a need for improved visualization tools for use with infrastructure elements. These and other difficulties are addressed in the following description.